Whumptober 2019- Muffled Scream
by Frankie McStein
Summary: His first thought was that Higgins was in trouble and he took off at a run.


Wind was howling around the construction site. The air was full of groaning sounds from the half-finished building as it was pushed and pulled by the weather. Higgins hadn't been impressed with Magnum's plan, had outright told him it was an awful idea.

"One of your worst. And that's saying something, considering."

But Magnum had been sure that Rickard would be using the bad weather to shift the paintings that he had stolen from his ex-wife's new fiance. Of course, now that they were actually scurrying around the unfinished building, he was far less impressed with his own idea.

It was cold, with the wind bringing flurries of rain down from the shockingly dark sky. He was trying to look out for any sign of Rickard or his idiot brothers, straining his ears for any sound that didn't belong. But the plastic sheeting was flapping, throwing shadows and vague noises that caught his eye and made his ears prick up.

Somewhere below him, Higgins was checking the second floor while he worked his way through the third. They were meant to have kept a phone line open between them, but the weather had taken down a cell tower earlier, another reason Higgins had been reluctant to leave the estate, and the line had dropped a few minutes back.

So, when he thought he heard a yell, Magnum's first thought was that Higgins was somehow in trouble and he ran for the stairs, taking them two at a time. He ran through almost half the second floor before hearing the sound again. It was just a few rooms away, and he charged through the door, expecting to see Higgins fighting with one of the idiot brothers.

Instead he saw white as something slammed into the back of his head. He dropped to his knees, the walls tilting around him as everything went oddly gray, and he fought to keep his eyes open. Something hit him hard on the shoulder, and his arm gave out under him.

"Think you're so smart?" It was Josiah, youngest of the idiot brothers. Magnum knew he had a criminal record for various violent offenses and it looked like 'GBH with a baseball bat' was about to be added to it. He lifted the bat to swing it again, and Magnum managed to roll. But the movement left him dizzy, and he was barely able to repeat the move as Josiah brought the end of the bat down like a knife.

"You can't get away from me. Just like your little partner couldn't get away." He stood over Magnum as he gloated, and Magnum took full advantage. He brought his legs up in a vicious kick that had Josiah doubling over. It put his head within leg reach, and another kick sent him sprawling, blood dripping from his broken nose and eyes rolling back as he crumpled to the floor.

Magnum wanted to stay where he was. Higgy was in trouble. The floor was so comfortable. Higgy needed help. He really wanted to stay where he was. Higgy.

He was rolling to his knees before his mind could keep arguing with itself. Josiah had been utterly certain that Higgins wasn't going to get away from her ambush. Which begged the question, who had jumped her?

Actually, scratch that. There was another, far more important question- where on earth was she? Magnum hurried through the rest of the floor, leaning heavily against the wall at first but feeling his strength flowing back as the adrenaline started to pump through him at every empty room he came to.

"Higgins?" He decided to throw caution to the wind; the Rickard brothers knew they were there; it wasn't like he had the element of surprise. "Higgins!" A noise, far off, nearly lost in the wind, but he heard it all the same.

"Magnum, help!" She was below him. He turned and sprinted for the stairs, all thought of the pain he was lost in the rush of panic; he had never heard genuine fear in her voice before.

He burst through the plastic sheet that was marking where a wall would one day be and saw her in what would soon be a parking lot, struggling in the grip of two men, each bigger than Magnum.

One seemed to be trying to press something over her face, and Magnum felt a rush of pride as she threw herself to the side and managed to lock her teeth over the hand. The yell of pain the man- Jeremy, he thought- gave made Magnum grin a little in approval even as he was assessing the distance he still had to cross and realizing he wasn't going to make it.

The second man, Adam, had hit Higgins hard enough to send her reeling and, once she stopped struggling, had her in the back seat of the car they'd been dragging her to in a matter of seconds. Jeremy threw himself into the driver's seat and gunned the engine and took off with the tires squealing.

Magnum was a hand's length away when the car lurched forward, and he kept right on running. He knew there was no way he could possibly keep up with the car, but there was nothing else he could do; he couldn't just stop and let them take Higgins.

Speaking of utterly indomitable Brits, Magnum was pretty sure she was continuing her struggle against the men who had dared to put their hands on her. The car swerved violently, nearly crashing into a backhoe, before giving a sudden lurch, the rear end skidding out as the car came to a stop, as if someone had slammed on the brakes. In a few steps, Magnum had caught up with the car and, spotting the passenger side window was open, ran around to the door.

Just as the engine revved and the wheels spun on the loose gravel, Magnum lunged forward and got his arms into the window. As the tires caught and the car moved, he jumped and pulled and was jolted into car, tumbling into the seat in an awkward mess of limbs. A shout from next to him drew his attention, and he saw Jeremy struggling to steer with one hand, trying to unwrap the seatbelt from around his neck with the other.

One firm punch had Jeremy slumping slightly and his foot slipping off the gas. He tried to bring his hands up, whether to protect his face or to try to take a swing Magnum neither knew nor cared. Another quick blow had Jeremy's eyes slipping closed, and Magnum was able to turn his attention to the backseat where Adam was holding a cloth against Higgins' face.

Magnum reached over and wrapped his hands around Adam's skull, yanking sideways with all his strength and slamming the man's head into the side of the car. The cloth slipped to the footwell but Higgins didn't move, and Magnum caught a whiff of a sickly sweet smell that made his stomach lurch a little.

Adam was reaching for him, and Magnum shifted his hands, wrapping them both around Adam's right wrist and twisting. The snap of the of the bone would normally have made Magnum wince a little, but Higgins wasn't moving, wasn't responding at all to the noise and motion of the fight, and Magnum was worried.

As Adam pulled his right arm back, Magnum pushed himself forward and drove his fist full-force into Adam's face. Then repeated the movement, this time aiming for the other man's now exposed throat. Under normal circumstances, Magnum would worry about damaging the man's windpipe, but he wasn't sure if Higgins was still breathing and couldn't have cared less about the health of the man who had assaulted her.

Adam's body jerked and then dropped, hitting the door and sliding a little as his legs folded into the footwell. Magnum was out of the car before Adam's limp form had settled. He solved the problem of how far away the back driver's side door was by sliding over the hood.

"Hang on, Higgins," he muttered as he pulled open the door, catching her head as it fell. "You're okay. You're okay now." He caught her shoulders and lifted her out as gently as he could, wincing as her legs fell heavily to the ground. This close, he could see she was breathing just fine, if a little rapidly, and the relief was instant and nearly overwhelming.

He dropped down as he lowered her carefully, letting her head rest on his lap. The pain suddenly came crashing down on him, making him gasp as his head and shoulder both protested every move he had made since getting jumped by Josiah. He wasn't too sure why his chest was getting in on the act, wondering vaguely if he had somehow taken a hit to the ribs he didn't remember.

His hand fumbled with his cell, only remembering the downed cell tower after he'd already called up T.C.'s number. He gave a quiet groan at the extra movement needed and tapped his way back to the number pad, dialling nine-one-one and sighing as the call connected.

The operator seemed very concerned about the assault, the attempted kidnapping, the second assault, the probable drugging, and Magnum was still talking when the blue and red lights started flashing in his vision. It wasn't until the next day he realized the poor dispatcher probably thought he was dealing with some sort of mad man who was making up an absurd story.

As it was, he was grateful for the concern, and he thanked the man in slightly slurred tones as the pain in his head started to make him feel sick. The EMTs seemed almost as concerned as the man on the phone, and Magnum relinquished his hold on Higgins as they started talking very, very gently to him.

"There you go, sir. Just let us worry about her now. We'll get you both to hospital really soon, okay?"

Magnum thought that sounded like a wonderful idea and let his consciousness slip away. They were professionals. He figured they could deal with things without him.


End file.
